Quality in formative assessment
This writing is taken from my notes during the assessment module at IOE University of London. It aims to clarify and improve the use of assessment for learning in the classroom.
Based on the article‘Assessment in schools. Fit for purpose? Assessment for learning is what a student does or says will be observed and interpreted by the teacher or others learners, who build on that response to develop a dialogue aimed at helping learners to take their next steps. This is formative assessment, which contrasts with summative assessment.
In order to improve pupils’ performance and help them to learn a specific subject, researchers, educators, governments, and policymakers have promoted and tried to introduce new practices in the classroom. However, the results expected have been very different from the original plan. In many cases, this is due to the lack of participation of teachers in important decisions. So, what is conceived by a group of intellectual it is sometimes not understood or appreciated by teachers.
In the case of Assessment for learning, although just the concept seems quite powerful in education, we teacher have been struggling with its implementation mainly because it there seems to be a fine line between formative assessment and summative assessment. Then, the lack of clear and practical information about it has made the concept even more difficult to grasp. But once teachers understand the meaning of this ‘technique’, they adopted it because they have experimented the great benefits on their students’ learning process.
To understand the difference between these two form of assessment this assessment article points out that:
10 years ago, I was not so familiar with the concept of Formative assessment and I have to admit that it took me a while to see the differences and use it in my daily routine.
Today, I see the purpose of implementing formative assessment as the way to find out and correct misconception when learning. Although this pedagogical approach it is called assessment, the way I think it is more like assisting and guiding my pupils in their way to get from point A to point B. I think the moment that I forgot that it was called assessment I started to use it more naturally and frequently. In my view, when teachers heard the word assessment, they tend to think about a test or a form of measure with a mark. That is why it is so hard to use it in the right way. At the beginning of the module when the topic was introduced some of the teachers' comments were, formative assessment= short test or the little test or the test without an official mark. ´In this sense, the article Assessment in Schools. Fit for purpose says: However, frequent summative testing is not, of itself, formative.
From this module I learnt that one of the most important difficulties in implementing AfL correctly is the cultural misconception about assessment. For so many years we have associated assessment with a mark, score or note, that it is still stuck on teachers’ heads. At the end of the day, formative assessment came to challenge our traditional teaching practices, like the one I experimented when I was students. Teachers were the source of knowledge and information, we, the students were the empty recipients ready to be filled up. Questions were asked to measure your knowledge and self-assessment was inexistent.
Today, teachers’ questions aim to discover what has been understood how I can help make the concept clearer, and they are even used to challenge and motivate the students.
Like everything in life, you have to practice to get better. First of all, do not miss out formative assessment in your planning, consider it as part of your routine, and use it over and over again. Do not feel afraid of using it, even if you feel that you have lost the control of the lesson. As long you are responding to the necessities of your students it is always worth trying.
To make sure you are on the right path bear in mind the 10 principles of formative assessment
- Be part of effective planning
- Focus on how pupils learn
- be central to classroom practice
- be a key professional skill
- be sensitive and constructive
- foster motivation
- promote understanding
- help learners know how to improve
- develop the capacity for self-assessment
- recognise all educational achievements